The Wolverine

May 2018

The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports

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16 THE WOLVERINE MAY 2018   INSIDE MICHIGAN ATHLETICS MICHIGAN'S TOP PERFORMERS Women's basketball senior guard Katelynn Flaherty: She won the Marines 3-Point Championship March 29 in San Antonio at the State Farm College Slam Dunk & 3-Point Championship. Flaherty scored 18 points in the competition's opening stanza, before hitting 16 consecutive shots in the semifinal round for 26 points, the highest total for any participant this year. In the event's final stage, she took down Rebecca Greenwell of Duke by a score of 25-18. One of only two players in NCAA women's basketball history with at least 400 career three-pointers (410), she made 14 of her last 15 shots, including her final 10 with back-to-back perfect racks. Baseball freshman outfielder Jesse Franklin: The Seattle native was tabbed Big Ten Freshman of the Week for the sec- ond time in three weeks April 16, in addition to being named the league's Co-Player of the Week. He won the first honor after helping U-M to a 4-0 mark from March 28-April 1 with a .500 batting average, a .938 slugging percentage, and a team-leading eight hits and seven RBI. He drove in the winning runs twice in that span. The latter awards came after a two-game sweep of Maryland April 13-15 with a .625 average, 1.750 slugging percentage and team-high five hits, including two homers. Men's lacrosse junior midfielder Brent Noseworthy: He was named Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week March 27 after racking up nine goals and an as- sist (10 points) in consecutive victories over No. 4 Notre Dame March 21 and UMBC March 24. In the Wolverines' 13-12 upset of the Fighting Irish, Noseworthy recorded five scores and one assist. He then racked up four goals in U-M's 9-6 win over the Retrievers. The last U-M men's lacrosse athlete to win the weekly award was Ian King on March 14, 2017. Men's swimming and diving senior distance specialist PJ Ransford: On March 23, he won the NCAA Elite 90 Award for a second consecutive season, which is annu- ally given to the participating student-athlete with the highest cumulative GPA at each of the NCAA's 90 championships. The team captain was named an Academic All-Big Ten honoree for the third straight year just two days prior; he was only one of 21 Big Ten winter honorees to have maintained a cumulative 4.0 GPA. He was also awarded Michigan's Big Ten Medal of Honor for males April 9. Women's gymnastics senior Paige Zaziski: On March 25, she was tabbed as the Big Ten Co-Gymnast of the Year (shar- ing the award with Penn State senior Briannah Tsang) by a vote of the league's coaches. The senior became just the 12th Wolverine ever and second consecutive to receive the accolade, after then-senior Nicole Artz took home the title last year. Zaziski served as a team captain for Michigan this season, and was named to the All-Big Ten first team after winning 10 individual event and all- around titles. She was also selected as the Northeast Region Gymnast of the Year and an Academic All-Big Ten honoree in the classroom as well. — Austin Fox U-M RETURNS 68 PERCENT OF ITS OFFENSIVE PRODUCTION FROM LAST YEAR BY ANDREW VAILLIENCOURT Michigan will return more offensive production in 2018 than it has in any of Jim Harbaugh's previ- ous three years as head coach. Sixty-eight percent of the team's total yards will come back, led by 94.5 percent of last year's receiving yardage output. In 2017, 61.0 percent of the offensive production returned, while 48.8 percent came back in 2016 and 42.9 percent returned in 2015. The main area where Michigan loses produc- tion is at quarterback, where redshirt sopho- more Brandon Peters is the only player return- ing that has thrown for any yards in a Michi- gan uniform. However, the 30.2 percent of passing yards that is back doesn't tell the full story. Junior quarterback Shea Pat- terson threw for more yards (2,259) and almost double the touchdowns (17) as U-M's entire quarter- back room did last season — and he did it in six less games because after starting the first seven contests, he missed the rest of the season with an injury. The only major rusher that is moving on is run- ning back Ty Isaac, who ran for 548 yards last year. Former fullback Khalid Hill accounted for three of the six rushing touchdowns by players departing the program. MICHIGAN'S RETURNING OFFENSIVE PRODUCTION IN 2018 Total (Passing, Rushing and Receiving) Category Returning Yards 4,597 (68.0%) TD 33 (75.0%) Passing Category Returning Completions 57 (30.8%) Attempts 108 (31.2%) Yards 672 (30.2%) TD 4 (44.4%) Rushing Category Returning Carries 365 (69.0%) Yards 1,821 (78.8%) TD 20 (76.9%) Receiving Category Returning Catches 170 (91.9%) Yards 2,104 (94.5%) TD 9 (100%) BRANDON PETERS

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